(es) Vienna, April 11, 2024
Ex-wunderkind as young journalist Vlaidimir Kara-Murza, now into his second year of a 15-year sentence in a Siberian punishment camp, is in serious danger of meeting the same fate as the later Alexei Navalny, his wife Evgenia said in London, where she is campaigning for his release. The UK government refuses to include him in any hostage deal.
Mrs Kara-Murza said said it needed to change its position on prisoner swaps. “In today’s realities this strategy is no longer appropriate….We see that whether governments engage or not, the number of hostages and political prisoners is on the rise. The message they are sending is that if you end up arrested, it is your fault. Democratic nations are supposed to fight for their citizens.”
She urged democracies to unite and cooperate to develop mechanisms that would discourage states from taking western citizens as hostages.
- 11/04/24 Guardian, London: Kara-Murza “risks meeting same fate as Navalny”